Harm, Risk and Damage: Preventive Approaches to Social Problems Inspired By Harm Reduction in Brazil and France

Based on an ethnographic and comparative research carried out in institutions that work with risk reduction (réduction des risques) and prevention of risky behavior (prévention des conduites à risques) in Paris, France, and with harm reduction (redução de danos) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this paper aims to discuss some aspects of the differential developments that such preventive approaches to social problems, derived from harm reduction, have had in these countries. Therefore, it uses local translations of harm as “damage” or “risk” as a narrative support to reflect on the characteristics that the strategies, discourses and practices based on this model have assumed in Brazil and France.